BLACKFOOT — Firefighters kept a fire at the Basic American Foods plant just west of Blackfoot from causing much of an interruption at the facility.

The West Collins Road plant was briefly evacuated when the fire ignited around 11:40 p.m. Thursday but the plant's employees were back to work before the firefighters left the scene early Friday morning.

The fire ignited in one of the plant's large industrial dryers.

Blackfoot firefighters responded and had the fire under control in about 20 minutes. But they remained on the scene until nearly 3 a.m. Friday extinguishing hot spots and making sure that the fire had not spread to other parts of the plant.

There were no injuries and although the dryer was heavily damaged by the fire, firefighters said Basic American Foods officials told them it is repairable.

The plant specializes in turning potatoes into instant mashed potato mix and the dryers are used in that process.

Firefighters said the dryer and the area around it suffered fire damage but the rest of the plant was not impacted by the fire.

Firefighters said the blaze was accidental in nature but it remains under investigation because they're not sure what caused the dryer to ignite.